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1M views is $1,000 to $1,500 depending on many factors and what sources you use. A quick glance Nerdwriter's feed would indicate he's pulling in maybe $2,000 to $3,500 per month. The low end would definitely put him in starving artist camp.

I'll keep it simple. My name is Evan Puschak. I studied film production at Boston University and I've been making videos as The Nerdwriter since 2011. Early on, my video on The K.I.N.D. Fund ended up getting me a job at MSNBC, so I moved to New York City. Three years later, The Discovery Channel asked me to move to San Francisco, and write/host a show on their digital network called Seeker Daily. After launching a successful show for Discovery, I left to pursue The Nerdwriter full time. I've never been happier.

I wonder if he still lives in SF? The freeloader effect is powerful (I know, I'm an avid, non-contributing listener of public radio) so you have to REALLY like something to fork over cash.

EDIT: It says right on his Patreon. $3000 per video. So yeah, he's probably making high 5 figures between Patreon and YouTube ads.

EDIT 2: Clicking through some of the top Patreon creators, its interesting to see how things scale. Your best bet would be to create something that can be sustained by yourself. Because e.g. one creator is pulling in over $30k per month, but in their description they talk about their growth, they talk about having 11 full time people. $30k sounds like a lot, but not divided 11 ways.

CJ: Great links; I've watched a ton of these already but there are some new (to me) ones that I will definitely check out!
Another recommendation for RLM, specifically their "reviews" of the Star Wars prequels by the fictional character "Mr. Plinkett". An acquired taste, but in between the crass jokes and disturbing serial killer imagery, is an amazing dissection of "what went wrong" with the prequels compared to the original SW films and many other successful genre flicks.